It's a Wrap!!

So this week had to review our personal assessment and see if we feel that we have made any progress. I see myself still at the same score, simply because for me a lot of the things were new and this process doesn’t happen overnight.  I see as for my scores to go up I should re-assess myself in 6months to a year and then see if there is much change if any. Physically I am still at a 6, spiritually I am still at 7 and psychologically I am again still at my previous rating of a 6. All of these are still in a work in progress and it has only been over month roughly.

For my goals, they still stand as is. I am still working on incorporating everything, not only is this all new to me, but it is also arriving at time in life where everything is seeming to go crazy. The activities that I had mentioned I have been working on them, each one takes its own one on one time per say. Spiritually I am opening up more pathways that allow me to experience new cultures, physically I may not have joined a gym but I did buy a WII fit and it works good with my schedule, psychologically I have been working on understanding that I cannot control everything but that I can accept them as they are and maybe do things differently so that doesn’t occur again/

Throughout this term I learned that the power I seek rests within my being, that I myself am able to control more of what’s going on in my body than what I had previously thought.  I can’t forget all the exercise we did opened my eyes to another a realm, the realm of possibility.  I see a lot of classmates thoroughly enjoyed this course and I it is more than just the new techniques we learned, but the actual experiences we had while performing them. This course has giving me a blue print as to what we all capable of doing and future patients or anyone I may need to assist can feel that I am genuine where I’m coming from and hopefully join me on this journey. Thank you everyone for sharing you intimate experiences and good luck in future courses and future work endeavors.  

Signing Out:: *Maite*

Not the finale, but just the beginning!!

    Introduction:

            Western views only allow us humans to be considered a whole being, without a doubt they are correct to a certain extent.  Now within everything in our lives each thing has layers, and each layer needs to addressed and learned properly to then be able to examine the next; with that being said each one of us has to embark in a personal journey to really know who we are and figure out our true purpose. That does not exclude the professionals that assist us along the journey; they too must experience the similar things we may come across. Each one of us is a blend of our psychological, spiritual, and physical connections and experiences; all three combine and in return we are a product from them. Looking blindly past any one of the three causes an imbalance that can shake us to our core; health professionals need to learn techniques to incorporate all three into their practices to truly assist their patients and well most of all assist recovery to best potential. As far as my personal journey is concerned, I will be honest I feel as though I need to work on all three; not one person has reached perfection, so we are all a work in progress.

    Assessment:

        When it comes to assessing my health I must admit that I do tend to take longer than others, well at least I think I do. I can admit that I was and may still be naïve to the new experiences that I may encounter on my journey, but what I do know is that I will receive them with an open mind and open arms. Knowing that I am still in the beginner stages I cannot say that I am rank up higher that an eight, but that I give myself a 5-6 for all three. Reasoning for all three receiving the same number is because I am now starting from here and feel that even though I am new to all of this I am perfectly imbalanced and all three needs the same attention and time given to them for me to succeed.

    Goal development

 Psychologically I need to calm down the rapid speeds of my changing thoughts as well as learning to watch the “scene” and then properly choose my actions instead of letting them flow freely and have more control over them.

 Physically speaking I need to become more active and use exercise as in outlet to release any built up stress and use it as an aid to calm me down, can’t forget the benefits for my physical being also.

Spiritually I also know I am lacking, though I can’t say that I don’t my own belief system, I am still in the finding “myself” in that realm. I still need to find my inner peace and gain wisdom from things that I still have yet to experience. I am still young and I know I have plenty more to come my way.

    Practices for personal health:

    Physical: I plan to walk longer distances and eventually turn it into a jog, but for now I will expand the distance and maybe change locations several times a week so I don’t get bored of seeing the same scenery. Another thing I have signed up for at my local ymca is a Zumba course, I love to dance and I see all these people feeling rejuvenated and extremely content with the results and I couldn’t help myself, but to join.

Psychological: I found several websites that provide many practices of mindfulness, I am still sifting through to find something that suites me. I will continue on this path of enlightenment if will and I also joined a support group for parents with children with Autism. With these two goals I will expand my minds capabilities and live a better life style, the support group will help me vent and share tips with other parents that are in a similar position as me.

Spiritual: This one is still vague in sense for me, I see myself as a sponge and I am just collecting ideas and practices as I go. I do know for certain that my interest in other religions and beliefs will help me a higher spiritual knowledge. I still do my day to day praying which always seems to make my burdens just a bit lighter. With that being said I am still trying to find what suits me and my belief system best; I was raised by Christian beliefs, but I can’t help but want to learn more from others. So time will only tell where I may end up.

    Commitment:

                 Committing to these all at once does make me a bit nervous, but I have to release anything that will hinder me from reaching any goal I may set. Now what I have thought out is implementing a new domain every two months, so when I reach my six month evaluation I have integrated practices to all three. Reasoning to why I want to add them into my daily life every two months is so that I won’t become overwhelmed with all of them at once. This way I will give myself enough time to get the hang of the exercises and adjust my schedule to accommodate each without overlapping. To be able maintain my goals or even update them I made myself a spread sheet with my monthly goals and when each new domain comes into my schedule find new ways to incorporate them or even switch around a few  prevent exercises that can be moved to another day of the week. This process is not going to be easy, but it also isn’t impossible to be done; I have also setup reminders in both my phone and email calendars to check my spread sheets and my progress from now until then

Voyaging Towards Optimal Well Being..

Well after all the exercise done both throughout the term and in seminar I only could relate to two of them the most. I have to admit that at first it was hard to concentrate with a person talking, but then I visualized that voice a just a mere beacon guiding me in the correct path. The first exercise we did in unit #3 still sits in my mind. I always knew that we never actually explore our minds full potential, but never really tried doing so myself. After that experience I was in awe, to think that I could control my bodies blood flow with just a thought sounded a bit weird at fist, but when I personally felt the the change in blood flow I was amazed. That particular exercise I would like to use on a stressful day where I can sit down, relax, and focus on something internal and drop my anxiety level. The second exercise I enjoyed was "Meeting Asciepius". I envisioned my mother who is well known for her wise words, her calming effect, and heart of gold. To feel that energy leap from her to me was impressive, but made really understand that I do carry these qualities as well I am her offspring. So why would I ever think I could never achieve it? Of course doubts, but if you really give it thought we all can attain these attributes it just takes time. Not everyone has the patience for it, but eventually we come to the realization that we all can do it. As for this exercise I would continue to use it as a learning tool, and what I mean is to learn from those warm feelings and those strong vibes. All in hopes of finding similar results with other practices. 

Maite

Meeting Asciepius

I remember doing this exercise earlier this term, and when I did it again I felt the same warmth, wisdom, and serenity as the first time I did it. I envisioned my mother. My mother is a woman who always has had this calmness and gentleness to her, ever since I can remember. Never would I envisioned that I could her feel her energy in such a way, it was neat but still weird in a way. Weird in the sense that I never actually felt something like that prior to this exercise. Practicing meditation and mindfulness has opened my mind more than I thought it was. I see things in a different light, though there are times where I still go back or negative thoughts come in, but overall I know I have made progress. This is my journey and I will go at the pace I set out for myself. As I have mentioned in our discussions I will continue to put in an effort into incorporating these things into my daily routines. At the moment it is still rough around edges, but I see a better outcome soon. 


"One cannot lead another where one has not gone himself”. Simply means that one cannot expect another to do something without the proper guidance from the person giving the instructions aka us. This applies to all professionals especially in the health care field because people don't only want to know what is best for them, but they want to see the living proof an living example of what your preaching for a patient to actually put it into a routine for themselves. My growth is becoming aware of triggers that stress me or make me angry, being able to relax more on Que and work on becoming more in tune with myself. 

 

My Integral Assessment

For this week exercises I found that I was more knowledgeable on what to do, but still found it difficult to really find a point of concentration. Even though I had the guide in writing I would still find it difficult.  For myself I am going to continue to work on the subtle min exercise to then be able to fully grasp loving kindness. Even though this time around I did experience warmth that I didn’t experience the previous times I had tried the exercise, so I can’t completely knock myself because there was some improvement.

After doing the assessment, I found that the area I feel needs the most attention at this time is psychospiritual.  At this moment I am going through a lot involving my child and family dynamics have become strained due to the lack of genuine understanding. I am finding myself facing moments of extreme anxiety, conflicting emotions, and a mental chatter that peaks when the stressors come back into play. I have found that some exercise I found for unit #5 project are helpful in the sense that they relax me and let me properly make decision without them being tainted by frustration or anger.  I also believe this class came at a moment in my life where I needed it the most. Though I know where and which are my weaknesses I still need time to really put all this exercises into a proper rotation so that I can benefit from them.  Here is the website I visited for and found these exercises http://www.the-guided-meditation-site.com/guided-meditation-script.html . Hope you guys can find some that may help.

Subtle Mind...

     Well, this week I was able to enjoy this exercise. I feel as if I am radiating, I am more calm as with most the exercises but yet this one seemed to have gotten me to my all time calmest. :). At a certain point I was able to analyze my body and how much heavier it felt. Though I was distracted a few times I was able to grasp my attention back and see those thoughts dissolve. Lat week's exercise was a bit difficult for me to get, but when I tried later on I got used to the woman's voice randomly popping in though I still need to get the hang of the loving kindness exercise.

    Now for the connection between both spiritual and mental wellness is a more obvious one than I had thought in the past, but yet something I am currently working on. If you think about it to be have an overall good spiritual state your mental needs to be also or vice verse. As we continue to learn things I can see how the two truly feed off one another. If one isn't properly tuned the other will lack also.

I am very curious as to see what new techniques we will encounter.

Maite

Mental Workouts

In this experience or this particular exercise I found it difficult to concentrate a bit. I’m not too sure if it’s because I have so much going on in my life at the moment, but I just couldn’t get into this one. The other’s been more serene and was only one person. When the lady would talk she would throw for me a loop and I would lose the connection I had made. For me to make recommendations I would need to have been to make a personal connection or feeling what they were trying to portray to me. I will try once more just to give a chance and see how that goes. 

           Mental Workouts to me means that were executing tasks mentally, letting our minds potential really

grow. We have all the tools within us and we don’t know it or maybe just don’t believe in our capabilities. As for the research it shows the good impact it has on those that are in the study, showing that these people are to make changes and choices that truly benefit them in the long run. I think that having theses work outs we can grow to use our minds, imagine being able to use more of our minds potential. Just to think what our race could become by just working more internally. As of right now I need help with getting them into my routine, my son has a more busier schedule than most adults I know, so I would first need to get the hang of these new situations we are encountering and then work on that. I think when I am able to have time to sit and implement I can mold myself into what I envisioned myself to be or more.